About 100 people attended at a pro-immigration rally on the steps of Geelong’s City Hall to protest recent neo-Nazis group stunts in Geelong. (Alan Barber)

Passionate locals attend pro-immigration, anti neo-Nazi rally at Geelong’s City Hall

About 100 residents have gathered on steps of City Hall in Geelong amid a number of shocking stunts in Geelong by a white supremacist group.

About 100 people gathered on the steps of Geelong’s City Hall to rally against a white supremacist group that has targeted the city in a series of recent stunts.

The pro-immigration rally, spreading a message that racism and extremism will not be tolerated, was organised by members of the Norlane community and was held before the City of Greater Geelong’s council meeting on Tuesday night.

Activists held up banners reading: “Keep Geelong Diverse and Colourful”, “No Room for Racism” and “Fight Racism. Solidarity is Strength”.

In recent weeks, a group of masked men, believed to be from Melbourne-based neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN), posed in front of City Hall and the CFMEU’s Geelong headquarters, holding a banner that read: “Stop Immigration. Keep Geelong White.”

Geelong Trades Hall secretary and treasurer Tony Anderson said people from “all walks of life” attended the rally on Tuesday that aimed to demonstrate racism had no place in the city.

“We were very glad to see all the people who turned out and it was a very inclusive and diverse bunch of people,” he said.

Mr Anderson said diversity was one of Geelong’s biggest attributes.

“A lot of people immigrated here and love Geelong because it is very multicultural,” he said.

Read the article by Chelsea Bunting in the Herald Sun.